


Cures for Boredom and Paranoia

by its_not_my_fault



Series: Love On the Run [3]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Movie Verse -- Post Captain America: Civil War, Pre Infinity War - Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-08-29 10:42:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16742491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/its_not_my_fault/pseuds/its_not_my_fault
Summary: Natasha is attempting to cope without a mission. Maria is up to something... probably.





	Cures for Boredom and Paranoia

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Red in the Gray  
> Series: Love on the Run  
> Characters: Sharon Carter, Maria Hill  
> Genre: mostly friendship  
> Fandom: Marvel Movie Verse -- Post Captain America: Civil War, Pre Infinity War  
> Summary: Sharon can’t sleep. Maria is definitely up to something.  
> Rating: PG-ish  
> Pairings: none in this, planned Natasha/Sharon Carter for the series  
> Warnings/Spoilers: None.  
> Big Damn Table Prompt: Early Morning
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks Rebbbbb!!!!!

  
The helicarrier always felt like a submarine to Natasha. They were in a pressurized tin can, albeit a very sophisticated one, with narrow stairwells, tiny bunks, questionable food, and packed in with more people than was any way reasonable. Now that the fishbowl had been installed, what the residents were calling the clear underside of the ship, it felt even more like a marine vessel for all that it was land and surface creatures that were visible. 

  


Only one slim stairwell led to this expanse. She’d heard something about the material and the sort of giant bubble of space between the next level of the ship and clear piece having something to do with their new anti-detection technology and ship camouflage, but she hadn’t asked for any more details. Natasha wasn’t likely to understand the explanation anyway. She kicked idly at the material with her foot. It was supposedly as close to indestructible as humans, inhumans, and god-like aliens could get, so she figured it could withstand a little of her frustration. 

  


Natasha didn't like to complain, but as much as she was loath to admit it, even to herself, she was bored. Bored with a capital 'b.' Bored with a capital 'o.' Shit, all of the letters in the word were capitalized. Bored. Bored. Bored. The only times she didn't feel bored was when Sharon was there to entertain her with ship gossip and tell her funny stories about growing up around her Aunt Peggy. There weren't a whole lot of people who made Natasha Romanoff's "admiration" list, but Peggy Carter was one of them. 

  


Natasha was grateful as hell to Maria who'd picked her up on the rooftop of that building downtown and whisked her away from a very awkward situation involving the United Nations and a small portion of the original Avengers team. If it weren't for Maria, Natasha would be living on the run. Yes, she would've been fine, but she hated looking over her shoulder all the time. It was annoying and exhausting. 

  


On the other hand, if she were always on the run for her freedom, she probably wouldn't have time to be bored. And she was so, very, very bored. There was nothing to do on this ship. She wasn't a SHIELD agent anymore. Technically SHIELD only sort of existed at the moment and it had undergone some changes. Coulson, so far as she could tell, had done a pretty good job cleaning house, but there was no way of knowing for sure. 

  


Natasha also knew she’s being ridiculous about her trust in the others aboard the helicarrier. Natasha trusted and still trusts Coulson. Natasha was a little peeved when she'd found out that he had died that day on the helicarrier. If she'd known... well, there wasn't anything different she would've done she supposed, and since Fury found a way to bring Coulson back from the dead, the situation was neither here nor there. Death had changed Coulson, and losing a limb probably had too even if he had the most incredible prosthetic the world didn't know was possible, but he seemed better, not worse for his trip back from the grave. Honestly, everyone on his team was a miracle worker. 

  


She trusted Clint, and she trusted Mariam, but maybe all that trust was part of the problem. If she trusted all these people there wasn’t anything to do. Still, she didn’t think being bored was good for her. At first, it had been fun relaxing around the craft, annoying agents, sending ridiculous coded messages to all her friends and getting texts from Tony who was utterly incensed that he couldn't figure out where she was. She'd been entertained by the general gossip and the camaraderie and storytelling of adventures. She told stories of aliens and Budapest and the Winter Soldier. She slept, too. For the first time in years, she got a solid night's sleep. 

  


By now, Natasha was so well rested and so relaxed that she probably wouldn't know it if a spy did get on board the craft. At the same time, she saw espionage and danger around every corner and in every shadow. 

  


It was so rare for her to trust others sincerely. She'd grown to mostly trust the other Avengers. Clint, she'd believed in from the moment she'd met him because he'd understood how it felt to be taught an incredible skill and then realizing that someone had twisted you into using it for destruction and evil. The Red Room had aimed her like a gun, and she'd always fired true until Clint stepped in. She trusted Maria. Maria had been her handler when Coulson couldn't be directly involved, and they'd spent a lot of time in SHIElD training together. Even with as many female agents as there were and with a woman as the founder, SHIELD could still be an Old Boys Club. The two of them bonded quickly over their aggravation with the bullshit, and then kicked the shit of their fair share of assholes, too. Fury and Coulson weren't around much, not on this craft, but she knew they were there behind the scenes. Natasha knew they were spies at heart and wouldn’t always tell her the whole truth, but she trusted their motives, and that was good enough. 

  


Natasha stomped her foot again. Her thoughts were going around in circles. 

  


She also found that she trusted Sharon. Maybe it was because of that speech she'd heard the woman give at Peggy's funeral; maybe it was because she'd helped Steve when Natasha had made the mistake of following Tony, but more than likely it was a combination of those things. 

  


Sharon had pretended to be a civilian nurse while living in Steve’s complex and keeping an eye on him, essentially lying to both Natasha and Steve for months. Natasha kept thinking that should make her suspicious of the woman, but Sharon felt authentic in a way Natasha didn’t think she’d ever found another spy to be. 

  


Natasha had spent a lot of time pushing Steve to ask Sharon out. A lot of time. She couldn’t even be certain why she’d done that, except that Sharon was pretty and Steve seemed to like her. Now that she knew who had been a big part of Sharon’s life, it made a lot of sense why Steve had been drawn to the woman. She didn’t look much of anything like Peggy Carter except for maybe a little in the shape of their lips and cheekbones. There was something similar in their eye color, and there wasn’t much height difference, and Natasha supposed that both Carter women had that fair skin with a warm under glow too, unlike Natasha, whose fair skin was just plain pale, as with most redheads.

  


“You all right there, Natasha?” Maria’s voice interrupted Natasha’s thoughts, and she wondered how long Maria had been attempting to get her attention. She didn’t realize she’d been so consumed. 

  


“I’m fine,” Natasha answered, though she was surprised to find her voice breathier than usual as if she’d just dashed upstairs. 

  


“You sure? You were staring off into space with a concerned expression, and I shouted your name three times.” 

  


“It’s all this rest and relaxation. I’m losing my touch.” 

  


“The day you lose your touch, is the day you die,” Maria paused. “Shit, that sounded far more ominous than I intended. I just meant that you’d never let yourself lose your touch.” 

  


“Well, it’s not untrue to say that losing my skills would be the death of me. That’s the life we live.” Maybe that would have sounded depressing to someone else, but for Natasha, it was a statement of fact said with a bit of affection. She loved spy life so long as she wasn’t working for evil fascists or megalomania riddled corporations. 

  


“Yes. Speaking of which, your skills are exactly why I came looking for you.” 

  


Natasha grinned. “Oh, tell me you have something for me to do. Please.”

  


“Here I thought I might have to persuade you to give up your vacation time.”

  


“Vacation time?”

  


Maria waved her hand, “Whatever you want to call your leave of absence.” 

  


Natasha chucked, “Time off without pay?” 

  


“Yeah, that.” Maria smiled. “Want to get in more trouble?”

  


Natasha rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you think you even have to ask. Besides, I owe you a favor. What’s up?” 

  


“You owe me nothing. In fact, after this, I may owe you.” 

  


“It can’t be that bad, Hill. Just spit it out already.”

  


Maria winced, probably unaccustomed to hearing Natasha call her by her last name. They’d been on a first name basis for years. “Have you met Agent Duchamp?” 

  


Natasha caught herself before she snorted, but it was close. “I’ve been hit on by Agent Duchamp.”

  


“Same thing with him, honestly.” To the unacquainted, Maria’s face didn’t appear to change nor did her tone give anything away—she could’ve been talking about the price of a can of corn to someone who didn’t know her. To Natasha, who’d known her quite a bit longer and had spent a good bit more time learning people, the monumental disdain Maria had for this Duchamp was clear. “At any rate, he’s passed all of his security clearances, lie detectors haven’t picked up on anything odd, and nothing suspicious has turned up in his monitored communication—“

  


“But you think he’s up to something.” It wasn’t a question… 

  


Maria answered anyway, “Yes, I do. I think he’s a holdover from Hydra, but I haven’t figured out his system yet. It’s driving me crazy.”

  


“Sounds like you could use some help.” 

  


“Yeah, I was hoping that you and Carter could work on this together.”

  


“If he’s such a dick, why don’t you fire him?”

  


“He’s the best marksman we have. We needed someone to take Clint’s place after he started working with The Avengers more and now he’s somewhere between under house arrest and retired. He is good at what he does; it’s just…” Maria trailed off, shrugging a little. Natasha got it. Sometimes your instincts screamed at you, and there was no discernible reason, but you couldn’t ignore them either. Instincts saved spies too often to be ignored. 

  


“You want me to get to know him better then? Get close to him?” 

  


“Not like that. Actually, I want you to team up with Carter. We’re going to assign you projects to work together on so you can get close to him in a working environment and then go from there.” 

  


Natasha studied her friend carefully. She was up to something, but Natasha wasn’t sure what it was. She supposed she should push for more information, but the prospect of working with Sharon tugged at her. Natasha wanted to get to know her better, spend more time with the seemingly sweet woman who didn’t hesitate to battle super soldiers or defy world government agencies. Besides, if she pushed directly at Maria, she’d evade. If Natasha went at the woman sideways, there was a chance of catching her off guard. 

  


Natasha smiled. “Tell me more.” 

  



End file.
